A non-creedal missional community in a progressive ecumenical universalist christian way, 5920 N. Owasso Ave, Turley, OK 74126 918-691-3223, 794-4637, 430-1150. Service. Community. Discipleship. Worship. All are Welcome. See below or Write to revronrobinson@aol.com for the latest gatherings. We often worship with others on Sunday. We hope you respond to the call to service to and with others in an Abandoned Place of the American Dream Marketplace Empire.

Tuesday, April 03, 2007

An Emergent Manifesto of Hope

Heads up on a great new collection of essays "An Emergent Manifesto of Hope" edited by Doug Pagitt and Tony Jones. It is a book I have been waiting for...primarily because it updates the "whole emergent" thing and includes within it a range of voices from three previously muted parts of the community--women, the "mainstream" denominations, and people engaged in liberation and social justice-focused ministry.

I will be posting more from it post-Easter. But here is a teaser from Brian McLaren's contribution in it about the need for a post-colonial Christianity in the West.

"In this way, we do not see ourselves as the emerging church--meaning a slice, sector, or division of the church that is roughly analogous to "the charismatic church" or "the seeker church." Instead, we see ourselves as the church emerging, meaning a growing edge of the church at large in all its forms, stretching from the margins into new territory beyond modern, Western Christianity.....Kenzo's question "Will evangelical faith break or stretch?" also applies to traditional (or mainline) Protestant faith, Roman Catholic faith, and Eastern Orthodox faith. I know that many of my traditional Protestant friends think they have this whole problem solved. They have had diversity training, after all. Now I am all for diversity training, but I can't help but think that many of the struggles my traditional Protestant friends face are rooted in the fact that their structures are essentially colonial structures--designed not for empowerment at the margins but for control from the center, and the center is nearly always a place of white or Western privilege...."